


A Sigh Of Relief

by demonmadej



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Angst, Boys Kissing, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, First Kiss, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hopeful Ending, Love, M/M, Minor Bill Denbrough/Stanley Uris, Romance, Short & Sweet, but not really, i mean they don't interact and there's literally no evidence to it but stenbrough will happen, kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25452082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonmadej/pseuds/demonmadej
Summary: Eddie woke with a gasping breath. By the time that he had floated out of the sewers, into the same disgusting and shitty water that Henry Bowers had been flushed through. He remembered everything. Feeling along his body, checking for the gaping hole that IT had stabbed through, he was shocked to feel that it was gone. There wasn't even a rip in his shirt.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Kudos: 64





	A Sigh Of Relief

Dark.

A type of darkness that was chilly, wet and scary.

Not Very Scary, however.

He promised, "Next time, we're going with scary."

Because 'Scary' alone wouldn't be so bad he had Richie beside him.

Who's Richie?

Slowly, very slowly, the names and faces came back to him.

Floating.

His body floated to the top. Wherever he was before... that place filled to the brim. With destruction. Death. Filling that could hide all the evidence. Nobody would know what happened here in the sewers. Nobody would've ever found him had he had stayed there. He kept seeing a turtle, and he knew this turtle well. Except... no, he didn't. He couldn't remember. The turtle knew his friends. Of course, he didn't know who those friends were, immediately.

There were two in his mind when he stopped to think. Something was off, though. Were they in some sort of optical illusion? She, Bev, was drowning, but the water looked like blood. He, Ben, was also drowning. Not drowning. Buried. The dirt almost completely covered his face, but then the turtle fell in. Hit him right on the forehead, and he screamed something to Beverly. The turtle plopped into the blood, splattering some on her cheek. She forgot about the Very Scary though, because she saw the turtle, and then she heard Ben.

She mostly just heard Ben. She would forget the turtle, just like he eventually would.

Just like Bill would when he saw it float by in the murky basement water.

Eddie woke with a gasping breath. By the time that he had floated out of the sewers, into the same disgusting and shitty water that Henry Bowers had been flushed through. He remembered everything. Feeling along his body, checking for the gaping hole that IT had stabbed through, he was shocked to feel that it was gone. There wasn't even a rip in his shirt.

Spinning around, he saw the top of a turtle shell disappearing underneath the water. Curiously, he dipped his head underwater, without a single thought of how putrid the water was. He could see a couple of rocks on the ground and a few small fish. But there was no turtle to be found. Coming up for air, Eddie stood in the calf-deep water. The sun was shining brightly overhead. He had been underground for more than twelve hours, it had seemed. Squinting, he shielded his eyes with his hand as they adjusted to the bright light, and began his walk out of the water.

On the walk to the Inn, he remembers exactly who he was. Eddie Kaspbrak. Risk assessor. Married...unhappily.

I need a divorce. I need....to leave New York.

His shoes squished with each step, water dripping off of him and leaving an obvious trail. Making his way to the inn, he stopped only in the parking lot. He knew that red car, not just the make and model, but he knew who owned it. He knew who it belonged to and he knew he wanted to be in that car.

...

Richie rubbed his eyes from underneath his cracked glasses. He felt that crying wasn't possible anymore without some sort of hydration. Could people kill themselves from crying too much? He didn't think that would be so bad. But it was certainly a pussy way to go.Desperately trying to search his mind for a joke, he huffed in irritation when he found nothing. Nothing sounded worse to him than returning to his old life. Forgetting the only people he cared about and pretending that he wasn't funny.

But there was something so much worse.

Honey, he's dead.

It wasn't Beverly's fault. But he hated hearing the sound of her voice, especially when she said something like that. He hated the words that came from her mouth in that order. He didn't need to be told that. He knew. Was it such a bad thing to deny and hold onto any bit of hope that he had inside of him?

She got to kiss Ben with happiness when they defeated IT, and so she could afford to say something like that. She could afford to have a conscience and make sure he was pulled out of the collapsing house-

"FUCK!" Richie cursed loudly, punching the wall in his bedroom at the Inn. He thought he might've been able to damage it, possibly put a hole in the wall, but all that happened was he hurt his knuckles. Shaking out his hand, he scowled. "Shit...not as strong...as I thought."

And he wasn't. The thought of losing Eddie wasn't computing. It wasn't registering for him. It would never be accepted in his mind. It was unbearable. He wasn't strong enough to accept losing the love of his life. It wasn't-

He was stopped mid-thought when he heard Beverly scream from downstairs. A shattering sound following the high pitched noise.

Instinctively, Richie bolted out of his room. His heart was pounding, and he could hear it loudly in his ears. All he could think of was, God, what now

Freezing at the top of the staircase, Richie was too overwhelmed at the sight before him, to do anything else other than grip the railing.

"Eddie?" He choked out. His heart that felt like it stopped, started speeding up again, different that it felt just a moment ago. He felt more alive than angered. "Y-you...you're, how-"

"I need a shower," Eddie said, waving lightly, as he made his way briskly up the staircase. Beverly and Ben stood at the bottom, watching him and his movements up the stairs in shock. Eddie almost breezed past Richie, but he wouldn't allow that to happen. Not again.

Shaking away his shock, he grabbed Eddie's wrist, not too roughly, and stopped him from making his way past. "Hold it-"

"I'm covered in filth, Rich-"

But Richie couldn't let him finish that sentence. He wasn't even sure if this was real, or just a hallucination of his imagination. Maybe Pennywise had somehow lived and this was just a sick joke, and they were all going to die.

But Richie didn't give a shit anymore. He lost Eddie. Twice. And he wouldn't pass up another chance, but what if this was his only?

Crashing his lips against Eddie's, he pressed him against the staircase railing. Eddie didn't protest. His eyes were wide open, and his hands were gripping the railing tightly behind him, but after a moment they relaxed and he closed his eyes. He kissed back, grabbing a fistful of Richie's dark curly hair, with the intention of making a hair loss joke later on.

For now, they deserved this. Their first kiss together. Their sigh of relief. Their finally.

Of course, there was doubt, and tests on this reality would come later. A poor explanation would eventually follow. At some point, the losers would understand and accept that Eddie was somehow back alive. Derry granted one last piece of magic and it came in the form of their friends.

It would start with a phone call.

While Eddie and Richie kissed, sloppily learning the curves of each other's mouths, with enough intensity to make their friends blush and look away, Mike ran into the room. His cell phone in hand, he struggled to speak.

"It's Stan," he finally blurted out.


End file.
